In the 8 years I've been working in the industry, its often the little differences between companies that surprises me...for example, break time.
Now I'm not suggesting that big post production houses don't encourage break time, far from it, they actively do, what I'm interested in, is what they provide in the kitchens.
water - yes...sure
tea - yes, also a basic essential, and therefore also milk
beyond that, its anyones game, and the differences are staggering, I once worked at a company that spared no expense on their coffee machines, i mean the big big ones.. really good quality coffee, and not just one of these machines, but one on every floor, so you never had to go far for a decent coffee, trouble was... a) i don't drink coffee, and b) often i wanted to get out of the office.
Breakfast is an odd one too, most places provide basic bread and cereal, but not everyone... some only do bread, a toaster and some jams, others only do the cereal, one place (I'm not mentioning names, sorry) went really overboard having muffins, crumpets, 3 types of bread, juice, milk, cereal and fresh fruit each and every day, it was awesome... of course the side effect of this was that i was often snacking on stuff throughout the day, as it was always there...
there are ups and downs, more food available means, the more i will consume, hey its free! and a designated kitchen area means i have somewhere to go, have a chat, a cup of tea, and basically 'take 5', but these lovely commodities aren't always available, and what happens without them? well I'm sure no workplace wants to make the worker unhappy but often the niceties are the first thing to go when purse strings are tightened, and its a shame because i feel you need a place and a reason to kick back and collect your thoughts for 5 minutes a day.
Id rather be productive and happy, than hungry and stressed with no where to go by my own desk...
now, don't read too much into this, I'm not making any specific type of statement about anywhere in particular or any resentment, just a sort of observation really, one of the first places i look at when starting at a new company is the kitchen! i think it reveals a lot about how the company treats its staf.
anyway, something to think about.
Adam
